Alastair Cook learns to thrive in England's high-pressure zone

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook’s closeness can be gauged by the state of the
England Test captain’s garden. “He has got a few of my sheep in there,” says
Cook, part-time farmer, full-time run scorer.

Confident: Alastair Cook says he and Andrew Strauss set the tone for England's batting order with their successful opening partnershipsPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

“I saw that stat the other day [5,000 runs],” he adds. “It is a nice little thing to have done. It is quite clearly the opening partnership that tries to set the tone.

"When bowling James Anderson and Broady have to set the tone, when we are batting first it is myself and Straussy. At the top of the order you come across every situation and condition and hopefully we inspire a bit of confidence in our dressing room when we walk out to bat.”

They certainly inspire confidence in each other. And a sense of empathy.

Cook, along with the rest of the team, was defensive of the captain when Strauss went nearly 18 months without a Test century.

It is a run that ended a few weeks ago and now he goes to the third Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston this week looking for a hat-trick of consecutive hundreds.

“Look, it [criticism] is part and parcel of the game,” Cook says.

“I think now this side, pretty much everyone, has been through that cycle of criticism.

"You always have that as an England player. As we kept saying at the time when he was not converting runs into hundreds, we knew he would come back.

“When he scored that hundred at Lord’s I have never seen an ovation like it from a crowd, which shows how universally popular he is. In the dressing room everyone was desperate for him to get it. He is the leader of the Test team.”

The pressure on Strauss was similar to that Cook faced when his own form slumped in 2010.

The experience left him believing that it is not lightning fast bowlers or mystery spinners who are an England player’s greatest challenge.

“Dealing with the whole ‘thing’. The actual pressure of playing for England is the hardest bit,” he says.

“That pressure of performing. You don’t come out the other side until you have stopped playing.

"No matter how many games you have played or what you have achieved you are always desperate to perform as well as improve. That means you are always under pressure.”

It is something that Jonny Bairstow is discovering only two Tests into his career, as his technique is dissected and former players warn him to expect a barrage of short-pitched fast bowling after being roughed up by Kemar Roach at Trent Bridge last week.

“It is ridiculous to judge a player on two knocks,” Cook says. “I have no doubt he will play a lot of times for England.

"He showed that on his one-day debut he has what it takes. But because of what happened [at Trent Bridge] everyone is talking about it. That is what he has to deal with.

“Everyone wants to score runs on debut and in their first few games.

"But as the great man [Graham Gooch] said himself, he is the only person to have made two scores on his debut that spell his surname. He bagged them [scored nought and nought in both innings]. Clearly it doesn’t mean you are a bad player.”

We speak at Lord’s as Cook risks a wrist injury signing autographs and shirts, and just hours after Kevin Pietersen has announced his retirement from one-day cricket.

As captain of the 50-over team Cook does not appear too unsettled by the news.

“Everyone moves on. When I am not around someone else will come in and probably do a better job. You can’t get fixed on one player,” he says, as we watch Eoin Morgan, a man forgotten in recent months, make runs for Middlesex.

“To be fair we haven’t really had that much time to discuss a replacement. But what is good is that we have some good players not playing for England. We have the likes of Buttler, Bairstow, Ravi and Belly around too. Talent is there at our disposal and this gives them an opportunity.”

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